I pity the fool that doesn't have an herb garden. Even in our shit clay soil every herb Ive planted (Basil aside) has thrived. Fresh herbs take home cooking up a few notches.
Yep... just made some spaghetti sauce tonight with fresh basil, thyme, and oregano, and it was divine. Especially when you crush them slightly and add them after the sauce is cooked. (Most people add the spices in early and they basically cook away all the real flavour). It really brings out the awesomeness.
Basil is my favourite sandwich green, I usually have giant, lemon and Thai basil. I find enough herbs just gives a pleasant aroma as well. Many grow them simply for the outdoor ambience. Lavender is a good one for that, but it can attract hornets.
My sweet basil is killer. I have a patch dedicated to basil, plus I have several growing under the tomato plants because that is supposed to improve the flavor of the tomatoes. Now that they have some good root structures they are growing fast. I harvested a huge double fistful last night just by cutting the tops of my 2 largest plants. This is the haul from Friday plus the smaller haul from a couple days before that. My limmony tomatoes were late setters but I have a lot of fruit that will be rolling in next week and later. Spoiler I pulled the trigger on that electric tiller, though it has not come in yet. I have 3 "oops" cuttings of tomato plants (and when I have a place to plant them, I will be taking more) and a fuckton of pepper seedlings that need a place to go. I will definitely be putting in more herbs as well, and I have plenty of okra and green bean seeds that could be planted. Really, once you get it set up it isn't that much work. I am loving this garden this year. I recently started a mini bin for vermicomposting that sits inside under my kitchen sink. I am using red wigglers that were sold as bait because I could not find a local place for bulk worms, and shipping was outrageous. I stopped by the Goodwill on the way home and found various containers that could nestle inside each other and be closed tightly on the top, and drilled quarter inch holes so they can travel back and forth between layers. There are tiny airholes up top for air circulation. I was surprised, but they actually went down into the aquarium rocks at the bottom under the tiny colander holes. I thought rocks meant "go back up" to worms. The rocks are there to catch worm tea and prevent a wet floor. They reproduce pretty fast at an almost exponential rate so within 6 months I should have a pound of worms, and they'll double quickly after that. I may even try to sell some on craigslist if I end up with too many (that's the first place I looked and the closest worm farm was in Louisiana). Red wigglers eat half-equal amount of their body weight in kitchen scraps. There are only a couple things you can't feed them. They turn it into pure worm castings that is strong, organic fertilizer. For reference, I saw a small bag of worm castings for sale at the local garden center for $8. Spoiler: Worm stuff
Ive read that you can't have too much coffee ground and onions since they make the enviroment too acidic. Those two items make up 95% of my food scraps.
We eat a pretty good variety of veggies and fruit here so I am not too worried about that. I produce around +/-a lb of food scraps a day. Some of it goes to the worms inside, most of it goes to the outside compost. Remember that you can also compost dryer lint, dog hair, and old scraps of cloth. What really helps my ratio are all the garden trimmings. My vining tomatoes appear to have an active area of growth and everything behind a certain point yellows as the tomatoes there redden. All those branches as well as the old branches that carried the tomatoes go into the compost and seem to break down pretty fast. I have learned that if you want to compost cabbage, you really have to cut it up small. There's probably a natural reason Kimchi was discovered. Big chunks of cabbage do not break down quickly or easily and after a couple weeks in there, still look fresh enough to eat....
I'd suggest not adding the tomato foliage as you mentioned. The yellowing could be any number of pathogens which is why they always suggest never adding diseased plants even to hot composting. Im getting some septoria leaf spot on a few of my varieties. Most times it doesn't hurt in the end, Ive seen some where the diseases defoliate the entire plant.
They are just old, there isn't anything wrong with them. The other tomato varieties (Early Girl Bush, Better Bush) do not yellow on the bottom, and the other vines (Limmony) yellow only slightly on a few leaves as they are late setters and still actively growing towards the bottom of the plant.. It is the growth pattern of the Juliets. They just keep going on and on, but the active area of growth looks like the newest 4-5 feet of vine.
Holy shit those are huge! I've got a single plant of beefsteak and cherry tomatoes and they're both pretty anemic.
The tallest point is probably about 10' now. I am hoping to get a few good vines to drape down the side while I train a new batch of cuttings up. I have taken additional cuttings now in anticipation of expanding once that tiller ships in. Our weather is just perfect for them right now and that may have something to do with it. It is very warm but not in the 100s and has been nonstop raining for the last 6 weeks. I'm not sure what your growth conditions are like but you can't really beat what we have going on right now. I want to try a couple new varieties. Cherokee purple and Marzanos, and maybe some Mortgage Lifters. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with all these tomatoes, but I really enjoy the hell out of growing them.
Update on some of my plants: First is tomatoes, second is a green pea that is starting to climb. My jalapeno's have a bunch of small peppers on them and the cucumber is spreading. The last is one of my eggplants that has 5 or 6 growing on it now.
Bewildered I've probably already mentioned this but if you've got tomatoes that you don't know what to do with and the neighbors are refusing, can 'em! This is what my neighbors did after they determined the compost soil they bought this year is piss poor and now their tomatoes are thriving. I don't know if it's too late to dig them up and re-plant them now but it worked for them. My tomatoes are not on-par with how they were last year but they are finally showing some strong growth and warm temps this week will only help. On basil... you can't have too much. It's a scientific fact. Okay I dunno about that but it is one of my favorites too and I'm eagerly anticipating fresh Caprese salads with homegrown tomatoes and basil. Herbs are just easy to grow too. Apparently I planted some cilantro and basil seeds earlier this year and forgot for awhile until the seedlings appeared over this past weekend. Discovering those little basil seedlings was a very, very pleasant surprise. We're gonna try making and freezing pesto sauce in bulk if they turn out. Those pumpkin seeds I planted? Yeah every single one sprouted... I need to get rid of a few, and I'm not really surprised most people I offer a sprout to are refusing due to space limitations. The stars aligned on Saturday when we visited a new brewery in my neighborhood that is adjacent to a big beautiful community garden and I noticed a squash vine growing next to their building. I asked the manager if they wanted some pumpkin vines and he eagerly said yes. Dropped off half a dozen for them yesterday. It's a perfect win-win and a lot of people will hopefully enjoy seeing some big ass pumpkins growing there later this year. My goal to plant more native perennials and wildflowers in my gardens this year is panning out, they are thriving and our pollinator buddies LOVE them. Makes me happy.
Yeah... this is what my tomatoes look like so far... might as well put them out of their misery. They're trying, but nowhere near thriving, to say the least. Might not come through well in the pic, but they're quite yellow and have holes in the leaves.
Ok guys...I need some help. We're finally getting landscaping done to our house and we picked out some ivory halo bushes. I inspected them at the nursery and they looked fine but as soon as we got them in the ground, the leaves got spots. A quick Google search listed a bunch of reasons they could develop, including overhead watering, which we don't do. I'm at a loss for what caused them and I would really like to find a remedy. Any ideas?
That looks like some kind of blight, which is caused by fungi usually. How soon after planting did the spots appear? What are you yard conditions like?